


Recalled to life

by reefofhappiness



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 13:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/799191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reefofhappiness/pseuds/reefofhappiness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A summer trip to Kansas brings plenty of revelations to the team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recalled to life

**Author's Note:**

> Old YJ anon fill based on [this prompt](http://community.livejournal.com/yj_anon_meme/689.html?thread=847537#t847537): Five times Robin has done things that made his teammates wondered if he'd been raised in a circus. It was supposed to expand into a sort of large fill -- basically, a year after "Independence Day" the team goes to the Kents for the summer, and while Conner struggles with figuring out how he’s supposed to fit in with his grandparents and navigate the still awkward relationship with Superman, Robin keeps doing circus-y things to lighten the mood. Was written pre...sheesh I don't even know how early (the original author's note says "Targets" at the very least, but I might have been being gracious), but Conner hadn't been named in-show yet.
> 
> I kind of want to finish it (which is more attachment than I usually have for my discontinued works), but it's just…so far removed from actual canon by this point. And also I don’t really have motivation right now to try and emulate the tone I managed the first time around with the fill. But maybe inspiration will strike someday in the future, who knows. I’ll just sit on it for now.

**I.**

Kansas is dusty and dry and the summer heat is near stifling at this time in the midday. M’gann and Kaldur look uncomfortable the instant they step off the bus (taken to avoid the unnecessary attention in a small country town that landing the bioship in the middle of someone’s corn field might cause), but they put brave faces forward. Superboy – Conner, now – sees that and feels guilty, because they are only here because of him. He bites his lip hesitantly, seconds away from telling them he’s changed his mind, that he’s strong enough to brave this fight alone, but Kaldur puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder while M’gann smiles warmly at him and he realizes that that’s a lie.

“Sorry,” he mumbles. They surely have summer plans of their own.

“Dude,” Wally grins, “Don’t worry, this is great news for you.”

Conner nods very slowly, though his expression is still troubled. “Right.”

Artemis stays silent; she knows too well the possibility and sting of rejection, of failure, and it shows in the darkness on her face.

Robin, a master at reading atmospheres, tries to lighten it by nudging her, and then Conner as well, with a laugh. “Chill out, Mr. and Mrs. Kent are really awesome. And if Superman’s inviting you to meet his parents, it means something, yeah?”

Conner just nods resolutely. “He gave me a name,” he reiterates, voice suddenly optimistic, though he’s still not feeling any more certain about this summer stay. “And I’m meeting my…” His voice falters. Not _his_ parents, not his grandparents either. Not his anything, other than his source material’s caretakers. “I’m meeting his parents. I can do this.”

And with that last gathering of courage, he sighs and picks up his bags, ready to head for the farm.

 

***

 

Martha Kent has a beautiful personality, big and open and embracing. Conner has no clue to handle that, not from a woman who insists he call her ‘Grandma’ rather than Mrs. Kent, a woman who is _Superman’s mother_.

Superman seems a little uncomfortable as well, when she hugs Conner and declares her new grandmother status, and all he does is force out a stilted chuckle and avoid acknowledging the raised eyebrow Mr. Kent shoots his way.

“So I see you’re all settled in…” Superman – Clark Kent, Conner reminds himself, he is Clark like Conner is Conner right now – says, gesturing to the kitchen floor, now finally uncluttered with suitcases and duffel bags. “And I – ”

“Clark, don’t even think you’re getting out of dinner,” Martha fusses lightly, hands on her hips and apron fluttering in the slight and rare breeze coming from the open window. “You’re rarely home nowadays, spend time with the kids.”

“And _us_ , your old folks,” Jonathan throws in good naturedly. Clark shrugs, mildly defeated and largely joking, with a smile. His eyes sweep over the team (pausing a nanosecond longer on Conner, analyzing and morbidly curious) and then over the rest of the kitchen with an emotion teetering into a more nostalgic territory.

Conner feels like there’s not enough space in this kitchen, in this house or in this town or this state or this world, for the both of them. He always does, it’s just much more evident as they both try to squeeze their existences into this one room of Clark’s childhood home.

“Just dinner.” Clark concedes and Conner is secretly as terrified as he is relieved.

 

***

 

Conner isn’t sure how he feels about the farm. It’s peaceful and there is the promise of a lot of manual labor and it sort of makes him feel more vibrantly alive, but he knows this is only a sample of living here. There’re chores but there are also disasters and crisis and death and failure here like anywhere else. Conner’s four hours here, Conner’s staring into the pink sun as it sets slowly, unrushed and tranquil into the horizon, amounts to nothing, does not make him fit here as easily as Clark Kent once did.

Wally balances on the railing of the porch as he slurps down his third bowl of ice cream. “Sooo,” he says in that tone he has when he hasn’t decided if what he’s about to say is too much. “Dinner was…nice.”

Before Conner can decipher how he feels about that comment, Artemis makes a highly disdainful noise in the back of her throat and smacks Wally in the side of the head. “Oh my god, you’re stupid.”

“No,” Conner mumbles, head bent down over his bowl of homemade ice cream at the reminder of his failure. “It really could have gone better.”

M’gann floats into his peripherals, a gentle presence. “Give it time.”

He’s not too sure about that, he’s _given it time_ and it’s taken a year to get only here: awkward glances and a semblance of vague acknowledgement.

“Wally’s bluntness aside,” Kaldur begins (Wally whines, “I was using sarcasm, that’s not _blunt_ ,” in the background), “There is little point in mourning what you cannot change. What’s done is done.”

“Superman can fly fast enough around the world to time travel, and change 'what's done'.” Conner grouses, and it is yet another reminder, another little detail, that adds up to the summation of all his failures. His mood is plummeting again, because coming here is shaping up to have been a bad idea.

“Oh give me that,” Robin says, grabbing the ice cream bowl from Conner’s hands. “Stop pouting and put your mind to it. Attitude is, like, half the battle.”

Conner grumbles incoherently at that, not sure how much he believes in that sentiment. Robin rolls his eyes and grabs Wally’s remaining ice cream bowls too, stacking them all in his own empty bowl. 

Wally bristles, “Hey!” 

Robin elbows him in the diaphragm, effectively shutting him up by knocking all his breath out his lungs. “Yeah, well think before you speak next time. I’m cutting you off.”

“It is getting late, we probably should head in,” Kaldur points out over Wally’s gasps for air. “We have work in the morning.”

“Ugh, _no_ , we have chores,” Artemis spits out venomously, though M’gann positively shivers in delight at the word, grinning.

“Whatever,” Conner says quietly, trying to squash the little renewed ray of hope reviving itself in his chest. He kind of thinks this experience will be easier if he doesn’t set his expectations too high.

As they walk back to the house, Robin starts to juggle the five bowls in his hands with such expertise and ease that Conner can’t help but think of that movie he once watched with M’gann, the one with the talking and flying elephants. It makes him smile, just a little - even as ice cream begins to liberally fleck them, and Wally and Artemis end up glaring at Robin and yelling in near-unison, " _Stop that_!"

Conner's smile only widens, especially at how Kaldur shakes his head and M'gann laughs (like sunshine, Conner's mind gently supplements) as Wally and Artemis shift to glaring at each other, annoyed with their synchronization.

Robin sees him out the corner of his eye and grins, as if to say _I told you so_.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah I fixed a detail error about the leftover ice cream in the bowls, since someone commented on that on the original fill. I still remember how I was taking physics around the time I wrote this and wanted to be a dick and pull out centripetal force equations sarcastically when I first read it....even though it was a good call and valid question. Ah the throes of youth, so full of indignant righteousness, haha.


End file.
